Connecticut Natural Gas Pipeline Project Considered

Efforts to upgrade one of Connecticut's three major natural gas transmission lines will start next week as the owners of the Algonquin pipeline begin meeting with homeowners who live along its route.

Officials with Spectra Energy, the Houston-based company that owns the Algonquin pipeline, will hold meetings Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to meet with landowners. The main part of the line extends from Danbury across the state to Thompson in Connecticut's northeast corner and includes major spurs into North Haven and New London.

Marylee Hanley, director of stakeholder outreach for Spectra Energy, said the meetings are just open to the landowners who might be affected by the improvements.

"These are informational meetings where we'll have maps that show the property of land owners and will allow them to express any concerns they might have about the proposed route," Hanley said. Because the project is in its preliminary stages, she declined to go into specific details about the route.

"We're to replace about 33 miles of older transmission lines with newer pipes in various segments along the route," she said. The plans also include adding an additional 19 miles of new pipeline to the spurs that go into North Haven and New London, Hanley said.

After getting input from landowners who live along the pipeline, Spectra Energy is expected to make its final recommendation by early summer to federal utility regulators as to where improvements should be made. The goal is to start construction on the pipeline in March 2015 and have the transmission line in service by Nov. 2016.

"The aim of this project is to provide the Northeast with a unique opportunity to secure a cost-effective, domestically produced source of energy," she said. Spectra Energy delivers natural gas from four points in North America: The Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountain region, Sable Island of off the coast of Nova Scotia and the Marcellus Shale deposit, which stretches across central New York and western Pennsylvania southwest into five other states.

Hanley said part of the reason for the expansion is related to a facet of Connecticut's energy policy which calls for helping the state's natural gas utilities expand their customer base. State officials have said that 50 percent of the state's homes are heated with oil, and that, with natural gas prices at historic lows, consumers would benefit by having the option to switch.

Another large natural gas pipeline operator, Shelton-based Iroquois Transmission System, announced in January it was entering into a venture with the Constitution pipeline project that is being proposed west of Albany, N.Y. The agreement would allow Iroquois to increase its supply of natural gas into New England.